by Daniel Hathaway
Most choirs do well to take on one or two non-English languages in their programs. Quire Cleveland handily dispatched Christmas music from five centuries in Latin, Finnish, Latvian, Spanish (in several of its dialects), Wendat, Abenaki, Mohawk, and Afro-Portuguese in the eighth edition of “Carols for Quire” at Trinity Cathedral on Friday evening, December 2. Whatever the language, they sounded terrific. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
When audiences hear performances of Handel’s Messiah, the composer’s engaging melodic lines probably attract the most attention: who hasn’t found themselves humming the tunes to “Every valley shall be exalted,” “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd,” or “I know that my Redeemer liveth” on the way home?
But underpinning all of Handel’s glorious arias and stirring choruses are the composer’s equally fetching bass lines, played by the indefatigable continuo department — cello, bass, and sometimes bassoon, with a keyboard player or two filling in harmonies on harpsichord or organ.
I spoke with Apollo’s Fire principal double bass Sue Yelanjian by telephone, explaining that I wanted to write a preview of Apollo’s Fire’s forthcoming Messiah performances “from the bottom up.” [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Founded in 1892 and now the oldest continuing performing organization in town, the all-male Singers’ Club of Cleveland has continued to make history by recently appointing Natalie Mallis as its first woman director. “They’ve had female guest conductors before, but no one has been around for the whole rodeo,” Mallis noted in a recent telephone conversation.
Mallis, who holds degrees from Kent State and Bowling Green State Universities and is a doctoral candidate in choral conducting at the University of North Texas, began meeting with the leadership of the Singers’ Club at the beginning of June.
“It was interesting to get to work with the board of the organization even before getting to work with the singers,” she said. “It was essential for planning a good transition. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
“Like families everywhere, the Akron Symphony celebrates the holiday season with our neighbors and friends,” music director Christopher Wilkins said in a press release about the Orchestra’s“Home for the Holidays” concert on Friday, December 9 at 7:30 pm at E.J. Thomas Hall. And in the case of the ASO, there are a lot of friends to include in the party.
Most American orchestras have established relationships with the wider community they serve, but Wilkins and his predecessors have gone well beyond “outreach” activities to include active participation by community groups in the Orchestra’s activities.
by Daniel Hathaway
Want a good return on your investment? Give scholarships to budding musicians to help them over the financial humps of their early careers. And if you’re smart, like Tuesday Musical, invite them back several years later to show scholarship donors how richly their contributions paid off. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Ballet has been around since 1892, when it premiered at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. But for more than half of its lifetime, the best-known version in this country is the one that George Balanchine choreographed for the New York City Ballet in 1954. Northeast Ohioans can enjoy that Nutcracker in a fine and colorful collaboration between the Pennsylvania Ballet and The Cleveland Orchestra. The show opened on Wednesday, November 30 at the State Theater in Playhouse Square, and runs through Sunday, December 4. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Not so very long ago, downtown Cleveland used to be deserted on weekend evenings. Not any more. On Friday, November 18, a political protest march mingled with a Cavs crowd and a sea of other downtown-bound folk to bring traffic (vehicular, foot, and equestrian) on Euclid Avenue to a complete standstill. One of the smaller audiences to assemble downtown that evening came to hear an excellent performance by Cleveland Orchestra musicians and friends sponsored by Heights Arts, nearly filling a private glass box party room rising sixteen floors above the hubbub below. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
The four-time Grammy Award-winning Juilliard String Quartet will revisit the Cleveland Chamber Music Society series at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights on Tuesday, December 6 at 7:30 pm for a program of quartets by Haydn, Bartók, and Beethoven. The concert, presented in conjunction with the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Winter Chamber Music Festival, introduces the Juilliard’s new cellist, Astrid Schween.
When you’re searching for an adjective to characterize the Juilliard String Quartet, “venerable” certainly fits an ensemble that marks its 70th anniversary this year. But rather than just basking in its rich history, the Juilliard has continuously and incrementally renewed itself over those decades. Formed in 1946 at the Juilliard School of Music in New York by its then president William Schuman and violinist Robert Mann, the original roster included second violinist Robert Koff, violist Raphael Hillyer, and cellist Arthur Winograd. The latest personnel change brings the total number of individuals who have played with the Quartet to sixteen. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Fans of Quire Cleveland’s annual Carols for Quire performances know that the ensemble’s singers are adept at wrapping their tongues around any number of languages in the same program. But as co-founder and artistic director Ross W. Duffin notes, the forthcoming performances may well set a new record. In three performances next weekend, his nineteen professional vocalists will treat their audiences to carols in Finnish, Abenaki, Afro-Portuguese, Mohawk, and Wendat, as well as in English, Latin, and Spanish.
“I’m always challenging the singers, but I think they were looking askance at me this time just because of all the special requirements,” Duffin said in a telephone conversation from his office at the music department of Case Western Reserve University.
One of those special requirements centers around the longest work on this year’s program, an Ensalada or musical salad by the 16th century composer Bartolomé Carceres. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Giacomo Puccini’s Suor Angelica and Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amelia al ballo made for a contrasting double-bill at the Cleveland Institute of Music on Friday evening, November 11. A guilt-ridden tragedy set in a convent, and a cheerful farce about a self-involved, adulterous socialite visited the extremes of the operatic spectrum. [Read more…]